Official Selection 2017: In Competition

The second edition of Turku Animated Film Festival received over 800 submissions for its International Competition. Ultimately 42 animated shorts from 16 countries were selected to compete for the Grand Prix, Tough Eye Award and Audience Award. In addition, there is a prize for the best student film.

TAFF’s Artistic Director Joni Männistö, who was in charge of the jury, tells that the task was challenging.

”The competition films prove, yet again, that animation knows no boundaries. The selected films represent a multitude of animation techniques from traditional drawing to computer-generated methods. Moving seamlessly in between different worlds, animation can be used to illustrate both everyday phenomena as well as the depths of the human mind”, says Männistö.

The films chosen for the competition include fresh works from seasoned filmmakers, such as Koji Yamamura, Chintis Lindgren, Špela Čadež and Marta Pajek, as well as from emerging talents like Jonathan Schwenk and Renata Gąsiorowska, who have been awarded at international festivals.

Polish animation, celebrating its 70-year-old tradition this year, is well represented at TAFF; no less than eight Polish animations were accepted to the competition. Another noteworthy feature is the amount of films made using rotoscoping.

While selecting competition films the jury also chose a Panorama screening of 14 films from professional filmmakers and 6 student films that didn’t quite make it to the competition but that definitely deserve to be shown.

Hearty congratulations to all those who were selected!

List of films selected for the International Competition (in alphabetical order):